THE GAZA STRIP…
(…has it become an Israeli version of the ghetto or concentration camp?)

Ever since the UN and most of the rest of the world accepted and recognized the creation of the State of Israel some seventy years ago, the Israelis and Palestinians have wasted several generations at war with each other. A conflict which shows no signs of abating, because both sides seem bent on mutual extermination rather than establishing a mutually agreed framework for peaceful coexistence with each other.

Neither side is blameless in this sorry state of affairs, because neither seems willing to accept that, in common sense and justice, neither can deny to the other what it wants for itself…mainly to exist as a viable national entity. Worse yet, whenever anyone from either side initiates a movement toward some kind of peaceful resolution to the conflict, intransigent elements from both sides do their best to sabotage such efforts.

Through it all the realities of the historical record of Palestine have largely been ignored. That is, both parties to this conflict ignore that neither have an inherent or exclusive claim to it because in the past 3000 years it has changed hands numerous times, over and over again and mostly by…the force of conquest. So, today’s conflict there is no different than what has happened there in the past. The Israeli and Palestinian conflict is just the latest conflict for this territory in that continuum of conquest for it.

From that perspective it’s thus not wrong to say that the root cause of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict about it was the UN’s action to accept the creation of the State of Israel, and place it there, without regard for that historical record. One could also say it was done that way because of a collective sense of guilt for not having done enough to prevent the Holocaust in WWII. Thus, allowing such a “national” entity to suddenly be allocated territory there which, until then, had not been part of one (being only a fragment of the former Ottoman Empire placed under British mandate for it), was akin to “conquest”, and viewed as such by the non-Jewish inhabitants who had been living there for many generations under that Empire.

Inevitably, that caused an immediate explosive reaction against it by all the surrounding Arab states, and military counter-action against it swarmed in from all sides to eliminate this ”implant” into their midst. In turn, the new-borne Israeli State saw that as the existentialist threat that it was, mobilized itself as best it could to defend itself, and somehow, managed not only to beat them off, but do so in a very decisive way besides. The outcome of that initial Israeli victory was to create a panicked exodus of Palestinians from that territory (egged on by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who was rabidly anti-semitic), so millions of them fled as part of a latter-day diaspora, with the bulk of them ending up in the Gaza Strip, where they remain today.

Of no great importance to anyone at the time, the Gaza Strip was viewed by the Palestinians as a place of refuge, and by the Isarelis as a useful dumping ground for them since it was not part of “erhetz Israel”, the core of the ancient Kingdoms of Judah and Israel.

Unfortunately, over time, the Gaza became a haven for Palestinian resistance movements of one kind or another, culminating with Hamas as the leading faction promoting violence rather than dialog to reach a peaceful accommodation with the Israelis. For their part, faced with constant surges of violence, “intifadas” of rebellion, etc., the Israelis for their part have become progressively harder in their restrictions over it, and more and more like hard-noised jailers trying to contain a riotous mob of inmates from running off and polluting their neighborhood. Such mindsets doing nothing to promote goodwill and understanding between them.

Which brings us to today’s situation whereby the entire Gaza Strip is now completely encircled and held in a vise-like grip by the Israeli military authorities, from which nothing enters or exits without their permission, and basic necessities to supply it, are strictly controlled just to keep those inside it quiet. In short, it has acquired many of the characteristics of the Nazi-model for a ghetto or a concentration camp, with only a lack of crematoria to complete it. Meanwhile the Gaza continues to fester in despair and violence. As a former Israeli military acquaintance of ours once described the Gaza situation for us:” It’s become like a nasty boil on our national tukus, and none of our leaders seem able to know how to properly lance it.”

It’s difficult to reconcile such a picture with Israeli claims of being a grand democracy, seeking only true peace and security for both itself and the Palestinians. Instead, what it looks like is the pursuit of a dedicated policy of attrition and expropriation (by the progressive extension of so-called settlements, and ever tighter restrictions on movement within the West Bank) so as to end up with exclusive possession of the entire territory for itself. That is, a one-state solution with no Palestinians. Even if this could be achieved that way, the Palestinians wouldn’t disappear, and perpetual attack and violence would thus remain against it, making such a policy approach self-defeating.

Israel’s economic and military power being what it is (which it has so well displayed numerous times), that should be sufficient to make it feel strong enough about itself to be willing to seriously consider the two-state solution as the only true way to achieve the peace and security it has always sought. Rather than depending on third parties to help them accomplish that objective, perhaps it’s time now for both the Israelis and Palestinians to sit down together, with no one else involved or any pre-conditions, to see how such a two-state solution could be achieved, even if it meant re-drawing the map from the way the UN mistakenly divided the territory between them so long ago.

Exchanging territory for peace would seem a less expensive way to obtain it than the cost of perpetual blood, conflict, and violence.

CENTURION